Douglas G. Thompson, co – founder, has specialized in administrative, civil trial, and appellate litigation for over forty years. His practice focuses on securities, antitrust, commodities, banking, communications, and other complex business and financial transactions. He has represented clients in federal court and before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, and the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Mr. Thompson litigated securities and commodities claims in failed savings and loan cases as outside counsel to the RTC and FDIC. Subsequently, he has turned to the litigation of nationwide antitrust, market manipulation and securities fraud class actions. He has served as plaintiffs’ lead and co-lead counsel, and as a member of plaintiffs’ executive committees, in a number of major, nationwide class actions, including Microsoft antitrust, natural gas commodity price manipulation, Sumitomo copper price manipulation, Merrill Lynch research report fraud, NASDAQ Facebook IPO, and the DRAM, Aluminum, Drywall, and ATM access fee price-fixing cases.
Mr. Thompson continues to act as defense counsel in securities enforcement matters and acted as lead trial counsel in the successful defense, after full bench trial, of insider trading claims and corporate fraud claims brought by the SEC. See SEC v. Butler, 2005 WL 5902637 (W.D. PA. APR. 18, 2005), SEC v. Wills, 472 F.Supp. 1250, 1978 U.S. Dist. Lexis 7231, Fed. Sec. L. Rep. (CCH) P96,712 (D.D.C. 1978).
After receiving his J.D. degree from Stanford Law School in 1969. He taught at the Stanford Law School in 1969-70 and then clerked for Judge Ben. C. Duniway of the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, in 1970-71. Following his clerkship, Mr. Thompson joined the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., where he was a litigator in communications and securities law. In 1977, he joined with Mr. Finkelstein in the formation Finkelstein Thompson LLP.
Mr. Thompson is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia, the State of California, several federal district and appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Thompson practices in the Washington, D.C. office.